Kasi Allen

Associate Professor of Education, Program Director

Rogers Hall

Kasi Allen is a social justice educator who began her career nearly three decades ago as a high school mathematics teacher in San Francisco. Her professional work has taken a variety of forms: classroom teaching in California and Oregon, facilitating professional development nationwide, evaluating K-16 educational improvement efforts, studying systemic reform, supporting innovative teaching practices, mentoring new teachers, and advocating for educational equity. Her most current research involves the study of “math trauma.”

As a doctoral student at Stanford University, Kasi began collaborating with Inverness Research, Inc., a small research and consulting group dedicated to supporting educational improvement in grades K-16, particularly in math and science. From 1992 to 2008, she collaborated with her Inverness Research colleagues to study initiatives in communities across the nation. From district-based reform efforts to regional partnerships involving many school districts and institutions of higher education, she helped evaluate efforts to build local capacity as well as sustainable improvement infrastructure.

As a faculty member of Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School, Kasi is dedicated to providing rich, rewarding, relevant, and rigorous learning experiences for pre-service candidates that will prepare them to be “break the mold” mathematics teachers, dedicated to social justice. In addition to serving as the director and mathematics content area coordinate for the Secondary MAT program, Kasi also teaches a required algebra course in the Elementary MAT program.

Video

As associate professor of education and mathematics coordinator in the M.A.T. Middle Level/High School Program, Kasi leads Lewis & Clark’s efforts to train and prepare math educators for the region and beyond.

Learn about why she thinks math education is a civil right—and how Lewis & Clark is making a difference—in this video.

Personal Statement

“A high quality, trauma-free mathematics learning experience is a civil right for all students. As we learn more about our brains and the extent to which negative emotions limit access to working memory, teachers of mathematics must adjust our pedagogy accordingly. This will necessitate creativity, risk, deep empathy for our students, and abandoning our traumatizing traditions.”

Current Research

Kasi’s research over the years has involved many different strategies for improving K-12 STEM education and making it more equitable — such as “place-based” curriculum and “student-centered” pedagogy. She has a particular interest in the role that identity plays in the mathematics education of children as well as adults. Her current scholarly work centers on research and theory building connected to “math trauma” – as distinguished from “math anxiety.”

Professor Kasi Allen recently had an article published in The Oregon Mathematics Teacher journal, titled “Tablets in the High School Mathematics Classroom,” with one of our recent graduate of the MAT program, Meredith Wood, MAT ’13 — currently a 2nd year teacher at Inza Wood MS.

Traditional grading methods, including giving zeros for late assignments and the 0 to 100 grade scale, can harm disadvantaged students enrolled in public schools throughout the nation. In a response to a question about grading in Parade Magazine’s “Ask Marilyn” column, Assistant Professor Kasi Allen argues for a new approaches that reward real learning.